Elder Brigham Blackhurst: Shèngdàn kuàilè!

Hey everyone! Eight down, one to go! I leave for Australia a week from today and I couldn't be more excited.

In the MTC, we refer to the day we receive our flight plans as Christmas. So, we in the Mandarin Branch, celebrated. The entire floor was bellowing Christmas carols from 6:30 on. We hung socks/stockings in our classroom and drew a tree on the board. We all wore matching red / green ties within companionships. We put treats and other misc. items into each other's stockings. And when they arrived right after lunch, our DL stuck them in the stockings and we anxiously waited class to start. We opened them and there was much rejoicing.

I love Christmas.

Christmas! Featuring Scrooge.

Our tree and stockings.

Us deciding that drawing maps is more important than studying Chinese.

So, the flight plans themselves. I report to the MTC Travel Office at 11:50 on Sept. 4. First flight is a couple hours from here to Houston, Texas. Hour and a half layover there. From there, I get on a plane and fly all the way to Auckland, New Zealand. I take off on the 4th and arrive on the 6th. Time zones factored out, close to an 16 hour flight. Three hour layover in Auckland is followed by a short flight over to Melbourne. I should land at about 11 AM on the 6th.

The hours are counting down.

Other fun things this week - we had our last district Yoga session. It's kinda sad, all these Elders I've really come close to, we're all about to part ways. Nissen and Campbell and Sowards and Staten and Crimm and Bunn and James...I'm gonna miss them all.

The other night before our devotional, one of the opening hymns was Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel. Our regular director wasn't there, so some other lady conducted the music. My dear mother, you would have died. She liked to start each line slow, and then slow down further to...emphasize? I'm not sure. It was painful. Please, to all my wards back home. Sing your hymns up to tempo. Feeling the Spirit is easier when you aren't asleep.

We've also started playing a lot of volleyball in our gym times. I've discovered another talent I don't have. Great fun.

This week was a testament to the power our wills have in determining our destiny. God has given us so much. The blessings are all around. I know that He will help us meet our greatest potential as we put our heads down and work. I've got a lot of work to do, starting next week. I'm eager to dive in. It's going to be rough. But I've got something beautiful to share. I pray He will help me through.

Our Branch President gave us an interesting challenge this week. We just finished a lesson on increasing our faith. He ended it by asking us to, in our prayers every day, ask for the following things:

First, an increase in faith. Ask him to help us more fully rely on him. After that, ask for trials. Ask for hard things.

The idea here is that within our trials, we grow and develop our faith. He will help us grow. He will be more than willing to let trials come into our path. Most importantly, He will help us through them. Our relationship with the Savior will grow as we meet the problems that come our way with a willingness to serve and give. I promise you all, if you rely on Him, He will help us through. Every time. Of this, I am sure.

Keep reading the Book of Mormon. It's incredible.

As a last request before I hit the mission field, if any of you have pictures on hand - old memories I'm apart of - I'd love to have a few more with me before I leave. I don't want to ask for much, especially once I'm on the other side of the world (please no one go spending tons to send me packages). But I'd appreciate taking once last bit of home with me before I head out. So please, pictures. Also, socks are always great. Can't have too many socks.

Love you all! Have a phenomenal week. I appreciate the support from home and everywhere else. Keep up the good work. God loves you all. He also loves the Aussies - can't wait to share it with them.

Jiayou!

Elder Blackhurst